Page 97 of What Blooms in Barren Lands

TROJAN HORSE

As the sun began to set in earnest, a circle of high-strung onlookers circled Einar and Bastien in the erstwhile chessboard-floor restaurant. I was hard on my feet and swayed with fatigue, bruised and aching all over.

Next time, be careful what you wish for,I thought to myself, but not with regret; rather with a disoriented emptiness that is customarily experienced on the first night alone in a strange country.

“Right, folks, a few steps back please,” Einar chirped, his arms extended theatrically. “Out of the splash zone.”

He turned to the fury boy with a brandished hunting knife. My mind buzzed with possibilities at the sight, none of which could have possibly occurred to the people around me. Freed from arbitrarily imposed self-restraint, I imagined crossing countless other borders that had until then seemed uncrossable. In other words, I wondered what the threat of the cold, hard steel would feel like against the tender skin of my inner thighs and shuddered as my nerves tangled and jolted like a jellyfish’s tentacles right under my skin.

As Einar approached him, Bastian’s crusty lip rippled with a growl, starved eyes popping out of their sockets. He jerkedangrily to and fro in his chains in a manner of someone fastened over a roasting pit.

“Oh bloody hell,” Einar sighed.

Then, without a warning, he smacked the boy hard across the face with the back of his hand. The plaster crunched and crumbled into a spiderweb-like pattern as Bastien’s head collided with it.

“Einar,” I gasped, just as I had thought I was well beyond being shocked. “It’s no use, they can’t feel pain!”

“Oh, this was for me, not him,” Einar replied lightly.

“Actually, we’re unsure whether they don’t feel pain at all or are just unable to react to it normally. I had the most fascinating discussion with Kev about this the other day and ... no one cares right now, do they?”

Like fluffy caterpillars, Dave’s eyebrows rose high on his forehead.

I shook my head in response, but not without an apologetic smile.

All we heard for the next few minutes was the soft gush of blood from the vein opened in Bastien’s elbow. Einar skilfully caught the ruby liquid in the vials before tying a rag tightly around the wound.

“Right.” He straightened up once he had three ampules full. “Now comes the tricky part. I’ll need you now, Lena. Grab gloves and a vial.”

She did. Einar pulled Bastien back into a sitting position and, completely nonplussed, squeezed the child’s slender throat. The small face turned burgundy red, and the eyes shone white and huge. I covered my mouth, but not before a shocked gasp escaped me.

The tightly stretched fabric of Einar’s shirt let up as he turned to me, and in his face, guilt mingled with amusement, much asif he wanted to say: “Oh come on, I did as much to you and I actually love you ...”

Some of the onlookers sauntered off, unable to bear the horrible wet noises any longer.

Bastien stuck out his tight, purple tongue, and soon enough, a steady stream of ropey saliva ran down it.

“Take the flask and catch it, Lena,” Einar instructed her mechanically, eyes fixed on the boy.

Unable to watch the child without feeling physically ill, I focused on Einar instead. He was pink with effort, and a vein throbbed in his temple darkly, threatening to burst. The muscles of his arms and broad shoulders were tightly clenched, bulging like rising dough, veins popping out. I bit my lower lip.

Once Lena collected two vials and caught some of the transparent fluid into the whiskey bottle, too, shaking it to mix it with the honey-coloured liquor, Einar released the boy from his grip. Lena then walked out of sight with the vials through a door that led to the former kitchen. A short while later, we heard her open and close what I assumed was the refrigerator, judging by the sucking sound. Then she re-emerged, looking highly uncomfortable and slightly green in the face.

“What did you go to the fridge fer?” Russ asked, puzzled.

“Well, if you must know, I rubbed some rotten ... whatever it was ... all over my private parts. To make sure they let me wash before ... well, before sticking their business in places that are now full of the damn vials. I need to stash them somewhere else first, don’t I?”

I groaned as my guts twisted inside of me.

“That’s very smart,” Einar told her appreciatively, no sign of horror registering on his face.

“Och foockin’ ’ell,” Russ said, looking as sick to his stomach as she did upon re-entering the room. “I’m so sorry that I asked.”

“I’m going,” Lena announced tersely. “There’s no time to waste. Make the most of it, yeah?” She fixed her eyes on Einar, who nodded solemnly.

“You have my word.”

She nodded curtly and walked out the door with a hard-set look on her face, not looking at anyone.